The present invention relates to an automotive truck on which a robot is mounted, and is able to move around the workplace along pre-set routes in order to perform a number of repetitive operations with the precision typical of this kind of machine.
The robot, which is designed in such a way to reduce its size and increase the range of the movements generally possible for this kind of machine, is mounted on a automotive truck.
The result is a fully-automatic unit which moves along programmed routes, stopping to perform the required operations.
Many industries use automatic machines, especially robots, to perform repetitive tasks, work in dangerous environments or carry out operations requiring a degree of precision that cannot be achieved manually.
These robots and manipulators are already known, but are always used in fixed or semi-fixed positions. At most, they are mounted on guides which allow limited movements, generally between two given positions.
Automotive trucks are already known such as those which can automatically follow a number of tracks marked along the route and which can be programmed to decide independently which track to follow, depending on the task to be performed.
For example, some known trucks can follow a track consisting of an underground wire along which a signal travels, while others can optically detect a track drawn on the floor and move along the center of the track.
Such trucks are called AGV's, which is the abbreviation for automatically guided vehicles and this term will be used throughout the remainder of this description. However, robots and manipulators mounted on AGV trucks which can move for long distances along different routes in order to perform a given number of operations do not appear to be known.
There is a need for this kind of equipment in many industries, such as manufacturing industries and the like, but its construction presents numerous major problems.
For example, it is necessary to compensate for any unevenness in the flooring so that the robot can position itself with the required precision; another problem is the difficulty of constructing a robot which is compact enough to be mounted on an AGV of normal size while retaining all the necessary movements and precision.